The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-09
FORTUNES.

FAtlma was TcSLleSS tDab suIhhoi'
Id the charms of everything she did
BIT possess prefgured themselves be-
re her mental vision in n glittering
nd miscellaneous kind of way that
bpt her perfectly sure that she was in
brious need of something, though the
itterng generality did not resolve it.
III into actual form. Every ship is
bmantic object save the one in which
q sail, it is said, and Fatima was ex-
\cing this. She looked out into
YES and caught their picturesque
She read about women who
studios and made coffee over
lamps. and her soul was fired
III a noble ambition to possess
pirit lamp of her own. True, she
lid not like coffee. but that did not
halter She was haunted by memo
les of poets who were said to live in
Earrets and enjoy the companionship
4 the muses.. She recalled the lines
b Whittier's "Snow- Bound" describ-
describing the feeling of snow which
fitted in through the roof and covered
he bed where the children slept, and
Il their rosy awakening into tingling
life and activeness; and she. too, long
bd to possess room where, in winter.
he snow would thus intimately APP
Droach. Ii was not that she was not
fairly comfortable as the world goes.
That was the trouble; In fact. she was
90 comfortable She longed TO be UNI
comfortable. She sighed for limita-
ons. She coveted limitations and
lardships. She wanted to be a triile
domestic on her own account, only she
Hid not call it domestic, but artistic.
She was haunted by visions of pictur-
esque poverty. the poverty that turns a
iainty side to the world. and has all
sorts o. delightful myster make
Bhifts ind the scenes. Instead of n
neparatc sleeping apartment she longed
Joy repose in one OF those mystic
creations which suffer sea
he, and are alternately bed, a
robe or mirror. She wondered
incarnation was necessary to pro-
e the change. She longed to try it.
She had feeling as if she were done up
lin cotton wool and labelled. ticketed
land laid away. and she struggled to
|extricate herself She came down TO a
|well-ordered and luxurious breakfast
table with sense of longing for the
|concoctioDs produced by that spirit
lamp. 1t had taken hold of her imagi-
nation, and Aladdin could not more
have priced his own than did Fatima
the one she saw in her dreams.
1t should be said that Fatima was not
a valiant spirit. 1t is to be regretted,
for heroine should possess strong
claims to absolute perfection; but a
lingering regard for veracity compels
her biographer to record that she was
not in the least strong-minded
woman-qute the reverse, in fact, and
when she contemplated serious realiza-
tons Of her impossible fancies she had
Just the saving sense to assemble syn
dictate Of her nearest friends, and dis
cnss the matter in full feminine counsel.
As a general thing Fatima' aspirations
were not considered IS at all serious by
her friends. They regarded her as a
subject of periodical attacks-revolu-
kry periods as It were. and they
d very kind to her, and laughed
Id scolded her out of her dreams and
visions till her feet touched the solid
earth again, and she acknowledged
that, possibly. they were right, and to
be conventional and respectable was
not so bad, after all, and she would go
on in reasonably decorus ways for some
time. But, all the same, there was in
her an element of artistic Bohemian
ism. and she never wholly lost her
latent longings for the cuisine whose
sole motive should be the spirit lamp.
One day. in an attack of more than
usual reality. she followed clue that
led 10 an, apartment with a charming
view over the sea. Fatima was en-
chsnted. 1t was what she had always
longed for. She was superbly confident
that she would instantly install herself
and her ideal spirit lamp-in it. Yet
with just that faint instructive turning
to common sense which was her saving
grace, she resolved TO submit her plan
to the views of the fair Melusina.
She was confident, however, of APP
proval this time. (There had been
occasions on which the fair Melusina
had distinctly disapproved) The trial
was made. The fair Melusina was
cajoled into making very long and
dusty and tiresome pilgrimage to be-
bold the glores of this apartment.
''Of course YOU will like it,, remark
u Fatima sweetly, as a particular
s!5ud of dust blew in their eyes, ike a
hot simeon, as they fingered in the tolls
Of horse-car block. with the sun beat
ing down. -"of course am not afra d